The Blood of Scholars, Poets, and Kings!

Late last week I had attempted to join a group on FaceBook--which shall remain anonymous--where I was banned after my initial posting for recommending an utterly brilliant academic text that is extremely difficult to acquire within the United States, and how I had been convinced by nearly every scholar that lines my personal library shelves that An Morrighan--the Goddess whom I was chosen to serve--was an earth-mother goddess.  Sadly, the views of these scholars (the majority of whom are listed below) were literally treated as being "defamatory to the goddess" in the words of the Group Moderator/ Owner.  I was even accused of calling the Moderator "a liar" as a  mere consequence of my views, ipso facto!  However, I was merely acknowledging the collated synthesis of academia on the subject; nothing more, nothing less.  Moreover, the notion that my Lady is an "earth mother goddess" was rejected out of hand by the Moderator as an alleged "Gimbutas based fantasy" despite the fact that I was merely quoting scholars directly, allowing them to speak for themselves by choosing the phrase "earth-mother goddess".  If she is as well-educated as she claims, one would reasonably assume that she would be well aware of this scholastic term.  She also seems to have a gross misunderstanding of the work and research of the late Prof. Marija Gimbutas!  Her thoughtless gut reaction led her to define an earth-mother goddess in the contemporary Neo-Wiccan sense (as if I belong to this camp, when nothing could be further from the truth), directly inferring that I believe that An Morrighan is "a sweet little mommy goddess who wipes your snotty nose for you".  However, the historical record is littered with earth-mother goddesses such as Nerthus (Norse), Pachamama (Andes), Gaea (Greek), Demeter (Greek), Ceres (Roman), and Zemyna (Baltic), none of whom behave as she has described, which calls into serious doubt her objective standards when dealing with fellow Pagans.    All this woman has done is erect a Straw Man that she might hurl insults at, all in an effort to pat herself on the back.  So, to lay to rest any doubt concerning my own qualifications as a researcher and my rigorous methods, what follows is a brief list of the hundreds of texts that line my personal Library dealing with the academic subject of Celtic  and Indo-European Studies.  They are roughly arranged in an order that I believe might best avail present and future Pagan students of Celtic Studies.  The blood of poets, scholars, and kings runs red through my veins!  I do not suffer fools gladly.  The impetus of this Blog is to prevent any unkind rumors from spreading across the Internet.

CODA: When one reads Irish mythology literally, one is bound to fashion the gods that one deserves; gods that resemble the personality traits of the individual in question.  However, this will remove the cultural context from the equation which is vitally important when interpreting that mythology and understanding of the gods.  If one were a gun-toting member of the fascist Republican Party or the cruel libertarian Tea Party, for instance, they likely would feel threatened by any other view of An Morrighan, especially if that view may cast serious doubt on Her "war-goddess" archetype.  I, on the other hand, have always maintained that I allowed the research to guide me in my understanding of An Morrighan, instead of who I perhaps wanted Her to be.  After all, I didn't choose to worship the Goddess; She chose me to serve Her.  That is what has led me; that is what has been my driving force!

• A History of Pagan Europe, by Prudence Jones & Nigel Pennick: Considerably a far better resource than Prof. Ronald Hutton's obsolete polemic, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles.
• European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, by Ken Dowden: An excellent overview of ancient paganism throughout Europe; a fabulous companion to the previous text.
• Christianity: Origin of a Pagan Religion, by Phillip Walter: Prof. Walter underscores many of the Indo-European pagan themes that course through the much later Christian religion.
• The Oxford Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, by James Mackillop: Pay attention to his sources for further study.
• Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, by Miranda Green: These two dictionaries are fabulous for acquainting oneself with the principal figures and themes shrouded within Celtic mythology.
• Celtic Myth and Legend, by Charles Squire: An early study and retelling of Celtic mythology; it is easy-going and not-too-daunting that the neophyte may easily absorb.
• The Gods of the Celts, by Miranda Green: A wide-ranging study by an archaeologist.  Yields a decent study of Celtic thunder-gods.
• The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland, by Daithi O hOgain: If there is one academic book dealing with the subject Celtic Studies that I would recommend, it is this utterly brilliant study (I simply cannot praise it more highly enough)!  It is everything that I had hoped Prof. Hutton's Pagan Religions (discussed above) might have been, only to be  bitterly disappointed by his unstated agenda.  The author, the late Prof. Daithi O hOgain (DoD: 11 December, 2011), is considered one of the principle authorities on Irish mythology and paganism, according to Eamonn ("Ned") Kelly, Keeper of Irish Antiquities (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin): pers. comm.  As an aside, Dr. Kelly is presently editing a collection of academic articles that he has described to me as a sort of magnum opus pertaining to the Bog Mummies and native rites of sovereignty.  As far as I know, it has yet to be published.
• Celtic Mysteries: The Ancient Religion, by John Sharkey: A very readable book, albeit very conservative when compared to Prof. O hOgain's study.  However, Sharkey acknowledges Indo-European comparisons.
• The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend, and Romance, by Daithi O hOgain: Because The Sacred Isle is somewhat difficult to acquire within the United States, being out of print, this text would come in as a close second.
• Celtic Goddesses: Warriors, Virgins, and Mothers, by Miranda Green: Another decent study of Celtic goddesses which one may compare and contrast with her earlier text, The Gods of the Celts.  However, I am not convinced by her account of a monolithic Celtic War-Goddess, so as far as that is concerned it is sorely dated by contemporary academic standards.
• The Sheela-Na-Gigs of Ireland and Britain: The Divine Hag of the Christian Celts, by Joanne McMahon and Jack Robert
• Celtic Warriors: The Armies of One of the First Great Peoples in Europe, by Daithi O hOgain: A very enlightening study that yields a very juicy sub-section concerning the Celtic Otherworld.
• Pagan Celtic Ireland, by Barry Raftery
• The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland, by Richard bradley
• Iron Age Britain, by Barry Cunliffe: I would recommend the first-half of this text as a companion to the previous study.  In the chapter dealing with ancient Celtic religion and paganism he goes much farther than the cited texts below when he speaks of An Morrighan as follows: "...in Irish tradition, the tribal god Dagda mated with the earth mother goddess Morrigan, their successful union ensuring universal fertility and general well-being in the year to come" (pp. 102).
• Pagan Celtic Britain, by Anne Ross
• Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales, by Alwyn and Briley Rees
• Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, vols. I-V, ed. by John T. Koch: This is an exhaustive academic resource, however it is incredibly expensive.  If one can acquire the full set it is an investment that is well worth the cost.
• The Celts: History, Life, and Culture, vols. I-II, ed. by John T. Koch and Antone Minard: These two books yield a far more reasonable purchase if one is utterly unable to afford the previous five-volume set.  For the most part, the font is somewhat larger, and one gets more bang for his or her buck because there a larger variety of entries are spaced within the covers of these two books.  However, the cost per book averages out to about the same cost per text of the five-volume set.
• Celtic Mythology, by Proinsias Mac Cana: He at first attempts attempts to argue for the Contemporary Pagan axiom that "all goddesses are one Goddess", though he later backs away from that explicit argument.  This text, and the one that follows, would offer a brilliant chance for one unacquainted with Celtic paganism and mythology to have a greater understanding of these traditions.  Taken together, I would recommend them, each, as a First Course.
• The Celts, by T. G. E. Powell: This was the first text that I ever bought on Celtic Studies; it was the one that first described ancient Celtic religion in terms of the relationship between the Sovereignty-Goddess and Sun-God; moreover it also described An Morrighan as an earth-mother goddess.  I guess one could say it had a lasting impression on me.
• The Ancient World of the Celts, by Peter Berresford Ellis: A gorgeous text on the Celts and their beliefs with full-color photos of Iron Age material culture.  A very readable text for the neophyte.
• The Celts: A History of Celtic Culture in britain from its Origins to its Transformation Under the Romans and the Saxons, by Nora Chadwick: Even in this meager text Dr. Chadwick relies on the themes of Irish pagan religion as I have described multiple times throughout the remainder of this Blog.  In fact, I have expressed this view so frequently throughout this Blog--occasionally to deaf ears, I am sure--that I feel as if I shall be blue in the face!
• Celtic Myth and Religion, by Sharon Paice MacLeod: Another somewhat like The Sacre Isles, albeit not nearly as brilliant!
• Celtic Gods and Heros, by Marie-Louise Sjoestedt: A considerably early work that makes the same arguments concerning Celtic inter-tribal religion as the previous authors, albeit with more temerity.
• The Ancient Celts, by Barry Cunliffe: He emphasizes Celtic inter-tribal religion as being one devoted to a pair of deities: a male chieftain god of sky, sun, and storm and a female deity of the land.  In fact, he explicitly calls out my Lady, An Morrighan, as fitting this Celtic and Indo-European archetype with An Dagda.
• The Celtic World, by Barry Cunliffe: In this work the author is much further in agreement with the late Prof. O hOgain that the Morrighan--and all Celtic goddesses--is explicitly an earth-mother goddess.
• The Witch Figure: Anthropology and Ethnography, ed. by Venetia Newall: Contains a fabulous article by Anne Ross concerning the Sovereignty-Goddess as a "hag".
• The Celtic Realms: The History and the Culture of the Celtic Peoples from Pre-History to the Norman Invasion, by Myles Dillon and Nora Chadwick: Underscores the arguments by the previous scholars.  In fact, not only do they insist that the Celtic gods must not be thought of as "Classical deities" in any sense, but that our Lady's Continental antecedents lie with the Gallic cult of The Matronae ("The Mothers").  They were a powerful trio of goddesses who held dominion over new-born life and agricultural fertility, considering these goddesses frequent association with eggs, bread, apples or some other fruit, flowers, and babies.
• The Celts: A History from Earliest Times to the Present, by Bernhard Maier: I have found his chapter, "The Early Celts of Ireland and Britain", to be the most engrossing, and supplying a variety of correlations that those not intimately aware with the topography cannot be expected to have a knowledge of.
• Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State, ed. by Bettina Arnold and Blaire Gibson
• Pagan Past and Christian Present in Early Irish Literature, by Kim McCone: Argues that the transformation of The Morrighan into a wolf is associated with male rites of passage in an Indo-European Warrior Aristocracy which may have some validity as a function of the Sovereignty-Goddess to whom the Chieftain was wedded and on whom the tribe depended for sustenance, otherwise the land would wither.
• Cu Chulainn: An Iron Age Hero, by Daragh Smyth: An utterly engrossing study of this Irish cultural-hero.
• Cattle Lords and Clansmen: The Social Structure of Early Ireland, second edn., by Nerys T. Patterson: Yields an excellent premiere chapter concerning the Iron Age seasonal portals.
• The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs, by Kevin Danaher: A somewhat hard-to-comeby book filled with seasonal Irish folkloric celebrations.  Read it alongside Patterson's study.
• Lady With the Mead Cup, by Michael J. Enright: A brilliant examination of the role of he Sovereignty-Goddess.
• The Wild Man: Medieval Myth and Symbolism, by Timothy Husband: A folkloric motif that pervades Indo-European mythology.
• The Celts: Origins, Myths, and Inventions, by John Collis: While one may disregard his politically-biased views that the Celts were a modern literary invention--which he shares with Dr. Simon James, author of The Atlantic Celts--he does provide important data concerning the interpretation of Iron Age coins.  Miranda Green uses these coins to establish her argument for a Celtic war-goddess based upon their surreal imagery; however, Prof. Collis is able to prove that they derive not from the mythological motifs of Celtic war-goddesses, but from the images of Roman nobles.
• The Great Queens: Irish Goddesses from The Morrigan to Cathleen Ni Houlihan, by Rosalind Clark: A brilliant study that emphasizes, among other things, the connections the Morrighan embodies as a hearth-goddess and as a fertility-goddess in association with the bovine.  The author also emphasizes, as does Prof. M.L. West, below--that the Celtic concept of war-fare was the cattle raid which Queen Medb, not The Morrighan, was directly responsible for inciting. 
• The Concept of the Goddess, ed. by Miranda Green: Yields two fabulous academic articles by specialists in medieval Irish literature that directly challenges the status of The Morrighan as a war-goddess; this seems to have had its antecedents with Clerical redactors who wanted Cu Chullainn to seem far more heroic.
• The Banshee, by Patricia Lysaght: The author of one of the articles disclosed in the previous text.
• Cu Chulainn: An Iron Age Hero, by Daragh Smyth: An erudite retelling and academic study of this renowned Irish cultural-hero.
• Landscape Perception in Early Celtic Literature, by Francesco Benozzo
• Celtic Sacred Landscapes, by Nigel Pennick: An examination of sacred sites through the eyes of the ancient Celtic peoples.
• In Search of the Indo-Europeans, by J.P. Mallory: The basic treatise on the subject.
• Indo-European Poetry and Myth, by M.L. West: An utterly brilliant examination of Indo-European paganism and mythological themes.
• The Gods of the Celts and the Indo-Europeans, by Garrett Olmstead: Another text like the former study; it is extensively cited by scholars of Irish mythology due to its focus on the Celtic gods through the academic lens of their Indo-European kinsmen.  Indeed, like the previous study, it shows that the Celtic deities are not Classical deities and should not be regarded as such through the procedure of compartmentalization!
• Comparative Mythology, by Jaan Puhvel: A cultural examination of European mythology.
• The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, by J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams: The Battle at Mag Tuired is examined as merely another relatively common Indo-European mythic theme.
• Whence the Goddess: A Sourcebook, by Miriam Dexter Robbins: Albeit the author is a fabulous Indo-European scholar, I feel she relies a bit too heavily upon Dumezil's tripartite model of Indo-European social class.
• Myths and Symbols of Pagan Europe, by H.R. Ellis Davidson: Another Indo-European exegesis on Celto-Germanic Studies.
• Roles of the Northern Goddess, by H. E. Davidson: Underscores the Indo-European concept of An Morrighan and similar female deities throughout Europe.
• The Gaelic Otherworld: John Gregorson Campbell's "Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland" and "Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands", ed. by Ronald Black.
• The Druids, by Stuart Piggot: The standard on the subject, albeit somewhat dated.
• The Druids, by Nora Chadwick: A more recent study of the Druids from the University of Wales Press.
• The World of the Druids, by Miranda Green: A very readable book on the Druids by Thames & Hudson Press!
• Written on the Body: The Tattoo in European History, ed. by Jane Caplan: Yields an article on the Celtic practice of tattooing their bodies and with what they may have used.
• Ildanach Ildirech: A Festschrift for Proinsias Mac Cana, ed. by John T. Carey, John T. Koch, and Pierre-Yves Lambert: Features a fascinating academic article about the boar as a cult-image or epiphany of the pan-Celtic god, Lugh.  It was originally in French, so I had to translate it into English.
• The Holy Wells of Wales, by Francis Jones: A study of the Welsh cult of Holy Wells by the University of Wales Press.
• Roman Scotland: Frontier Country (sec. edn.), by David Breeze
• Science and Stonehenge, ed. by Barry Cunliffe and Colin Renfew: An engrossing collection of academic articles dealing with presently accepted theories about how stonehenge was erected and how it was perceived as a spiritual and social focus in Neolithic Britain.
• Cin Chille Cuile: Texts, Saints, and Places: Essays in Honour of Padraig O Riain, ed. by John Carey, Maire Herbert, and Kevin Murray: A collection of academic articles dealing with facets of obscure early Celtic texts showing the present focus in the field of Celtic Studies.
• The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol, by Roger Sherman Loomis
• The Grail: The Celtic Origins of the Sacred Icon, by Jean Markale: A frequently-cited philosopher by Celtic scholars, he takes up the gauntlet laid down by Arthurian scholar, Loomis, above.
• Sources of the Grail: An Anthology, ed. by John Matthews: A collection of academic articles and translations of source-material centered upon the Grail Legend.
• The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy, by Ronald Hutton: Of all the following books dealing with pagan Celtic religions, this is one that I do not particularly recommend for a variety of reasons, as he engages in frequent "Special Pleading" and numerous other Logical Fallacies, as well as the fact that he does not seem to have taken into account the established academic consensus of Celtic Studies specialists.  Other authorities have explained the unfortunate pit-falls of this particular text better than I in this particular Blog, such as Max Dashu and the late Asphodel P. Long.  What they say is accurate and bears taking into account if one should decide to read this particular obsolete polemic.  Prof. Hutton is scheduled to release a forthcoming book this autumn under the title of Pagan Britain through Yale University Press, so it will be interesting to see how his views may have changed.

Academic Journals/ Articles:

• "The Ancient Irish Goddess of War" by W. M. Hennessey in Revue Celtique: This article is nearly 150 years old and it suffers extraordinarily from an author that seems determined to compartmentalize non-Classical deities--in this case, The Morrighan--into a Classical pagan religious structure that would have been quite foreign to these Iron Age Celtic cults.
• "Myth and Mythography in Cath Maige Tuired" by John Carey in Studia Celtica.
• "Aspects of the Theme of the King and the Goddess in Irish Literature" by Proinias Mac Cana in Etudes Celtiques.
• "The Sovereignty Goddess as Goddess of Death?" by Maire Bhreathnach in Zeitschrift fur celtische Philologie (ZCP).
• "The Anatomy of Power and the miracle of Kingship: The Female Body of Sovereignty in a Medieval Irish Kingship Tale" by Amy C. Eichhorn-Mulligan in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies
• "Marriage and Recovery of the Young Goddess: Story and Structure" by Emily Lyle in The Journal of Indo-European Studies
• "Bos Primigenius in Britain, or Why do Fairy Cows Have Red Ears" by Jessica Hemming in Folklore
• "Cerrce, as an Archaic Epithet of the Dagda, Cernunnos, and Conall Cernach" by William Sayers in The Journal of Indo-European Studies
• "The Hunters (Indo-European Proto-myths: The Storm God, The Good King, The Mighty Hunter)" by John Colarusso in The Journal of Indo-European Studies
• "Tales from the Bog" by Karen E. Lange in National Geographic: Eamonn ("Ned") P. Kelly was able to discover that the Iron Age bog mummies were likely deposed Chieftains in native rights of Sovereignty because they were placed in bogs on ancient tribal boundaries.

I personally recommend that one acquaint themselves with the above secondary-source academic materials prior to reading the primary source material dealing with Irish mythology due to the fact that  contemporary Pagans generally accept these myths at face value without considering their deeper implications.

Selected Primary Source-Material in Translation

• Ancient Irish Tales, trans. and ed. by Tom P. Cross and Clark Harris Slover: A fabulous collection of source-material that has been, unfortunately, edited in the early nineteenth-century to omit excessive and verbose passages, as well as passages that contained overtly sexual innuendoes.
• Early Irish Myths and Sagas, trans. and ed. by Jeffrey Gantz
• The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe & Early Ireland & Wales, trans and ed. by John Carey and John T. Koch: Extensive source-material.  The footnotes are just as valuable and as informative as the preceding textual analysis. 
• The Encyclopedia of Celtic Myth and Legend: A Definitive Sourcebook of Magic, Vision, and Lore, trans. and ed. by John & Caitlin Matthews: A compendium of academic primary source-material that has been re-published and annotated by the authors, with some new translations by them.
• The Tain, various translations: The Thomas Kinsella translation published by Oxford University Press, however, is generally considered the standard.
• "How The Dagda Got His Magic Staff" in Medieval Studies in Memory of Gertrude Schoepperle Loomis: It yields several further fascinating studies if one should happen to locate a copy!
• The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales, trans. and ed. by Patrick K. Ford: If you buy only one translation of The Mabinogion, please make it this one; it contains the tale of the sorceress Cerridwen and Gwion Bach, including several details not disclosed by most contemporary Pagan authors and scholars.
• The Mabinogion, trans. by Jeffrey Gantz
• Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations, collected by Alexander Carmichael: A collection of folk-spells, folk-lore, and remnants of ancient Celtic folk-belief.

As I type this, with my fresh batch of Morrighan Incense smoldering--fashioning my home into an appropriate temple for the Goddess--I spy a bright red (male) cardinal perched upon my windowsill; a rare omen.  However, considering that we have no crows nearby throughout the surrounding towns, I must take the omens where I may find them.  Red is, after all, a color intimately associated with the Celtic gods, particularly An Morrighan and An Dagda.  That simple gesture assures me that I have brought Glory and Honor to my Goddess.